Grayson County's online certificate ordering stalls; Cooke County already offers it

Grayson County's plan to let residents order certified birth, death and marriage records online has stalled, while neighboring Cooke County already takes those orders through a Permitium web portal. The Sept. 22, 2026, commissioners court agenda says development delays kept the GovOS software from being delivered or put into service, and it proposed canceling the contract. The available record does not show whether commissioners voted on that proposal.

Until an online service exists, a resident using the clerk's electronic birth or death application must still go to the clerk's office to collect the certificate. The clerk's website gives applicants five days to make that trip, after which the county removes the application. Mail-in and walk-in forms remain available. The GovOS pricing proposal listed no charge to the county and a $10 fee per request for the person ordering.

Commissioners approved the GovOS program 5-0 on Sept. 9, 2025, at the request of County Clerk Deana Patterson, according to the meeting record. That was more than a year before the cancellation proposal. GovOS was not the county's first vendor. The Aug. 12, 2025, agenda identified a Permitium online-request agreement approved July 8, 2025, and scheduled consideration of withdrawing it. The county's Oct. 13, 2026, agenda then scheduled consideration of a new Permitium agreement for Vital Director, software for online requests for vital-record copies. The available record does not establish approval or a launch date.

Cooke County's online portal tells applicants to allow up to two business days for processing and five to seven business days for mailed documents to arrive. Standard shipping is free. Delivery orders carry service and card-processing fees on top of the certificate price.

The published fee information for Grayson, Cooke and Denton counties lists the same base birth and death certificate prices: $23 for a birth certificate and $21 for a first death certificate. Grayson's prices also appear in a fee schedule effective Jan. 20, 2022, before the documented 2025 vendor agreements. Denton County accepts applications online, by mail or at six county clerk locations.

Texas has paid for records technology through fees before. A Department of State Health Services fee review says fees changed in 2006 to support digitizing about 60 million paper records.

The state also takes orders online through Texas.gov. The agency lists average processing times of 20 to 25 business days for online birth and death orders and 25 to 30 for mailed applications, with shipping extra. For birth certificates, DSHS requires a driver's license or state ID number, a Social Security number, the buyer's relationship to the person named on the record and payment by credit or debit card.